This service continues running when the app is switched off, and it is restarted when the device is restarted even if you don't open the app - so the message notifications arrive instantly every time. To maximize battery life, it can be turned off by switching off "Private notifications". You will still receive notifications while the app is running or in the background.
So, for Android we can now deliver instant message notifications without compromising users' privacy in any way. The app version 1.5 that includes private instant notifications is now available on Play Store, in our F-Droid repo and via direct APK downloads!
Please let us know what needs to be improved - it's only the first version of instant notifications for Android!
-
Our iOS approach has one trade-off
+
iOS notifications require a server
iOS is much more protective of what apps are allowed to run on the devices, and the solution that worked on Android is not viable on iOS.
We already have background refresh in the iOS app that periodically checks for new messages, and if you use the app every day it delivers notifications within 10 or 20 minutes. It is not instant, but it may be usable for some. If you use the app infrequently, however, this delay can become several hours, or your phone may stop checking for the new messages completely. This is not ideal!
The only solution known to us is using Apple's push notifications service (APN) to deliver push notifications.
diff --git a/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html b/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html
index 21a076e97f..3f05ace449 100644
--- a/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html
+++ b/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html
@@ -38,14 +38,14 @@
- SimpleX blog: Servers operated by Flux - true privacy and decentralization for all users
+ SimpleX blog: SimpleX network: preset servers operated by Flux, business chats and more with v6.2 of the apps
-
+
-
+
@@ -385,12 +385,52 @@ window.addEventListener('scroll',changeHeaderBg);
SimpleX network: preset servers operated by Flux, business chats and more with v6.2 of the apps
-
Will be published: Dec 10, 2024
-
This is a placeholder page for the upcoming v6.2 release announcement!
+
Published: Dec 10, 2024
+
What's new in v6.2:
-
Preset servers are now operated by two companies - SimpleX Chat and Flux. Read this post.
-
Business chats to provide support from your business to users of SimpleX network. Read this page.
SimpleX Chat and Flux improve metadata privacy in SimpleX network
+
+
SimpleX Chat and Flux (Influx Technology Limited) made an agreement to include messaging and file servers operated by Flux into the app.
+
SimpleX network is decentralized by design, but in the users of the previous app versions had to find other servers online or host servers themselves to use any other servers than operated by us.
+
Now all users can choose between servers of two companies, use both of them, and continue using any other servers they host or available online.
+
To use Flux servers enable them when the app offers it, or at any point later via Network & servers settings in the app.
+
When both SimpleX Chat and Flux servers are enabled, the app will use servers of both operators in each connection to receive messages and for private message routing, increasing metadata privacy for all users.
+
Read more about why SimpleX network benefits from multiple operators in our previous post.
+
You can also read about our plan how network operators will make money, while continuing to protect users privacy, based on network design rather than on trust to operators, and without any cryptocurrency emission.
+
Business chats
+
+
We use SimpleX Chat to provide support to SimpleX Chat users, and we also see some other companies offering SimpleX Chat as a support channel.
+
One of the problem of providing support via general purpose messengers is that the customers don't see who they talk to, as they can in all dedicated support systems.
+
It is not possible in most messengers, including SimpleX Chat prior to v6.2 - every new customer joins a one-to-one conversation, where the customers see that they talk to a company, not knowing who they talk to, and if it's a bot or a human.
+
The new business chats in SimpleX Chat solve this problem: to use them enable the toggle under the contact address in your chat profile. It is safe to do, and you can always toggle it off, if needed - the address itself does not change.
+
Once you do it, the app will be creating a new business chat with each connecting customer where multiple people can participate. Business chat is a hybrid of one-to-one and group conversation. In the list of chats you will see customer names and avatars, and the customer will see your business name and avatar, like with one-to-one conversations. But inside it works as a group, allowing customer to see who sent the message, and allowing you to add other participants from the business side, for delegation and escalation of customer questions.
+
This can be done manually, or you can automate these conversations using bots that can answer some customer questions and then add a human to the conversation when appropriate or requested by the customer. We will be offering more bot-related features to the app and a simpler way to program bots very soon - watch our announcements.
+
Better user experience
+
+
Chat navigation
+
This has been a long-standing complaint from the users: why does the app opens conversations on the last message, and not on the first unread message?
+
Android and desktop apps now open the chat on the first unread message. It will soon be done in the iOS app too.
+
Also, the app can scroll to the replied message anywhere in the conversation (when you tap it), even if it was sent a very long time ago.
+
See who reacted!
+
This is a small but important change - you can now see who reacted to your messages!
+
Improving notifications in iOS app
+
iOS notifications in a decentralized network is a complex problems. We support iOS notifications from early versions of the app, focussing on preserving privacy as much as possible. But the reliability of notifications was not good enough.
+
We solved several problems of notification delivery in this release:
+
+
messaging servers no longer lose notifications while notification servers are restarted.
+
Apple can drop notifications while your device is offline - about 15-20% of notifications are dropped because of it. The servers and the new version of the app work around this problem by delivering several last notifications, to show notifications correctly even when Apple drops them.
+
+
With these changes the iOS notifications remained as private and secure as before. The notifications only contain metadata, without the actual messages, and even the metadata is end-to-end encrypted between SimpleX notification servers and the client device, inaccessible to Apple push notification servers.
+
There are two remaining problems we will solve soon:
+
+
iOS only allows to use 25mb of device memory when processing notifications in the background. This limit didn't change for many years, and it is challenging for decentralized design. If the app uses more memory, iOS kills it and the notification is not shown – approximately 10% of notifications can be lost because of that.
+
for notifications to work, the app communicates with the notification server. If the user puts the app in background too quickly, the app may fail to enable notification for the new contacts. We plan to change clients and servers to delegate this task to messaging servers, to remove the need for this additional communication entirely, without any impact on privacy and security. This will happen early next year.
SimpleX network
Some links to answer the most common questions:
diff --git a/blog/images/20241210-business.png b/blog/images/20241210-business.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..835070e264
Binary files /dev/null and b/blog/images/20241210-business.png differ
diff --git a/blog/images/20241210-operators-1.png b/blog/images/20241210-operators-1.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..863bd00822
Binary files /dev/null and b/blog/images/20241210-operators-1.png differ
diff --git a/blog/images/20241210-operators-2.png b/blog/images/20241210-operators-2.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..85e599c827
Binary files /dev/null and b/blog/images/20241210-operators-2.png differ
diff --git a/blog/images/20241210-reactions.png b/blog/images/20241210-reactions.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6de8ba8f07
Binary files /dev/null and b/blog/images/20241210-reactions.png differ
diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html
index e8d03de0d5..702486d3cb 100644
--- a/blog/index.html
+++ b/blog/index.html
@@ -415,6 +415,42 @@ window.addEventListener('scroll',changeHeaderBg);
+
+
diff --git a/feed.atom b/feed.atom
index 41c11123fd..5a4c54d9dc 100644
--- a/feed.atom
+++ b/feed.atom
@@ -305,7 +305,7 @@
<p>This service continues running when the app is switched off, and it is restarted when the device is restarted even if you don't open the app - so the message notifications arrive instantly every time. To maximize battery life, it can be turned off by switching off "Private notifications". You will still receive notifications while the app is running or in the background.</p>
<p>So, for Android we can now deliver instant message notifications without compromising users' privacy in any way. The app version 1.5 that includes private instant notifications is now available on <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=chat.simplex.app">Play Store</a>, in our <a href="https://app.simplex.chat/">F-Droid repo</a> and via direct <a href="https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/releases/latest/download/simplex.apk">APK</a> downloads!</p>
<p>Please let us know what needs to be improved - it's only the first version of instant notifications for Android!</p>
-<h2 id="our-ios-approach-has-one-trade-off" tabindex="-1">Our iOS approach has one trade-off</h2>
+<h2 id="ios-notifications-require-a-server" tabindex="-1">iOS notifications require a server</h2>
<p>iOS is much more protective of what apps are allowed to run on the devices, and the solution that worked on Android is not viable on iOS.</p>
<p>We already have background refresh in the iOS app that periodically checks for new messages, and if you use the app every day it delivers notifications within 10 or 20 minutes. It is not instant, but it may be usable for some. If you use the app infrequently, however, this delay can become several hours, or your phone may stop checking for the new messages completely. This is not ideal!</p>
<p>The only solution known to us is using Apple's push notifications service (APN) to deliver push notifications.</p>
@@ -3146,6 +3146,83 @@ A few bugs and UX issues but great foundation. Love that it’s public domain.&l
<p>[1] You can also to self-host your own SimpleX servers on <a href="https://home.runonflux.io/apps/marketplace?q=simplex">Flux decentralized cloud</a>.</p>
<p>[2] The probability of connection being de-anonymized and the number of random server choices follow this equation: <code>(1 - s ^ 2) ^ n = 1 - p</code>, where <code>s</code> is the share of attacker-controlled servers in the network, <code>n</code> is the number of random choices of entry and exit nodes for the circuit, and <code>p</code> is the probability of both entry and exit nodes, and the connection privacy being compromised. Substituting <code>0.02</code> (2%) for <code>s</code>, <code>0.5</code> (50%) for <code>p</code>, and solving this equation for <code>n</code> we obtain that <code>1733</code> random circuits have 50% probability of privacy being compromised.</p>
<p>Also see <a href="https://ritter.vg/p/tor-v1.6.pdf">this presentation about Tor</a>, specifically the approximate calculations on page 76, and also <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/announcing-vanguards-add-onion-services/">Tor project post</a> about the changes that made attack on hidden service anonymity harder, but still viable in case the it is used for a long time.</p>
+
+
+ SimpleX Chat
+ chat@simplex.chat
+
+
+
+ https://simplex.chat/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html
+
+ 2024-12-10T00:00:00Z
+
+ SimpleX network: preset servers operated by Flux, business chats and more with v6.2 of the apps
+ <h1 id="simplex-network-preset-servers-operated-by-flux-business-chats-and-more-with-v62-of-the-apps" tabindex="-1">SimpleX network: preset servers operated by Flux, business chats and more with v6.2 of the apps</h1>
+<p><strong>Published:</strong> Dec 10, 2024</p>
+<p>What's new in v6.2:</p>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html#simplex-chat-and-flux-improve-metadata-privacy-in-simplex-network">SimpleX Chat and Flux</a> improve metadata privacy in SimpleX network.</li>
+<li><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html#business-chats">Business chats</a> to provide support from your business to users of SimpleX network.</li>
+<li><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html#better-user-experience">Better user experience</a>: open on the first unread, jump to quoted messages, see who reacted.</li>
+<li><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html#improving-notifications-in-ios-app">Improving notifications in iOS app</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+<h2 id="whats-new-in-v62" tabindex="-1">What's new in v6.2</h2>
+<h3 id="simplex-chat-and-flux-improve-metadata-privacy-in-simplex-network" tabindex="-1">SimpleX Chat and Flux improve metadata privacy in SimpleX network</h3>
+<p><img src="https://simplex.chat/blog/images/20241210-operators-2.png" width="288" class="float-to-right" /> <img src="https://simplex.chat/blog/images/20241210-operators-1.png" width="288" class="float-to-right" /></p>
+<p>SimpleX Chat and <a href="https://runonflux.com/">Flux</a> (Influx Technology Limited) made an agreement to include messaging and file servers operated by Flux into the app.</p>
+<p>SimpleX network is decentralized by design, but in the users of the previous app versions had to find other servers online or host servers themselves to use any other servers than operated by us.</p>
+<p>Now all users can choose between servers of two companies, use both of them, and continue using any other servers they host or available online.</p>
+<p>To use Flux servers enable them when the app offers it, or at any point later via Network & servers settings in the app.</p>
+<p>When both SimpleX Chat and Flux servers are enabled, the app will use servers of both operators in each connection to receive messages and for <a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20240604-simplex-chat-v5.8-private-message-routing-chat-themes.html">private message routing</a>, increasing metadata privacy for all users.</p>
+<p>Read more about why SimpleX network benefits from multiple operators in <a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20241125-servers-operated-by-flux-true-privacy-and-decentralization-for-all-users.html">our previous post</a>.</p>
+<p>You can also read about our plan <a href="https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/blob/stable/docs/rfcs/2024-04-26-commercial-model.md">how network operators will make money</a>, while continuing to protect users privacy, based on network design rather than on trust to operators, and without any cryptocurrency emission.</p>
+<h3 id="business-chats" tabindex="-1">Business chats</h3>
+<img src="https://simplex.chat/blog/images/20241210-business.png" width="288" class="float-to-right" />
+<p>We use SimpleX Chat to provide support to SimpleX Chat users, and we also see some other companies offering SimpleX Chat as a support channel.</p>
+<p>One of the problem of providing support via general purpose messengers is that the customers don't see who they talk to, as they can in all dedicated support systems.</p>
+<p>It is not possible in most messengers, including SimpleX Chat prior to v6.2 - every new customer joins a one-to-one conversation, where the customers see that they talk to a company, not knowing who they talk to, and if it's a bot or a human.</p>
+<p>The new business chats in SimpleX Chat solve this problem: to use them enable the toggle under the contact address in your chat profile. It is safe to do, and you can always toggle it off, if needed - the address itself does not change.</p>
+<p>Once you do it, the app will be creating a new business chat with each connecting customer where multiple people can participate. Business chat is a hybrid of one-to-one and group conversation. In the list of chats you will see customer names and avatars, and the customer will see your business name and avatar, like with one-to-one conversations. But inside it works as a group, allowing customer to see who sent the message, and allowing you to add other participants from the business side, for delegation and escalation of customer questions.</p>
+<p>This can be done manually, or you can automate these conversations using bots that can answer some customer questions and then add a human to the conversation when appropriate or requested by the customer. We will be offering more bot-related features to the app and a simpler way to program bots very soon - watch our announcements.</p>
+<h3 id="better-user-experience" tabindex="-1">Better user experience</h3>
+<img src="https://simplex.chat/blog/images/20241210-reactions.png" width="288" class="float-to-right" />
+<p><strong>Chat navigation</strong></p>
+<p>This has been a long-standing complaint from the users: <em>why does the app opens conversations on the last message, and not on the first unread message</em>?</p>
+<p>Android and desktop apps now open the chat on the first unread message. It will soon be done in the iOS app too.</p>
+<p>Also, the app can scroll to the replied message anywhere in the conversation (when you tap it), even if it was sent a very long time ago.</p>
+<p><strong>See who reacted!</strong></p>
+<p>This is a small but important change - you can now see who reacted to your messages!</p>
+<h3 id="improving-notifications-in-ios-app" tabindex="-1">Improving notifications in iOS app</h3>
+<p>iOS notifications in a decentralized network is a complex problems. We <a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20220404-simplex-chat-instant-notifications.html#ios-notifications-require-a-server">support iOS notifications</a> from early versions of the app, focussing on preserving privacy as much as possible. But the reliability of notifications was not good enough.</p>
+<p>We solved several problems of notification delivery in this release:</p>
+<ul>
+<li>messaging servers no longer lose notifications while notification servers are restarted.</li>
+<li>Apple can drop notifications while your device is offline - about 15-20% of notifications are dropped because of it. The servers and the new version of the app work around this problem by delivering several last notifications, to show notifications correctly even when Apple drops them.</li>
+</ul>
+<p>With these changes the iOS notifications remained as private and secure as before. The notifications only contain metadata, without the actual messages, and even the metadata is end-to-end encrypted between SimpleX notification servers and the client device, inaccessible to Apple push notification servers.</p>
+<p>There are two remaining problems we will solve soon:</p>
+<ul>
+<li>iOS only allows to use 25mb of device memory when processing notifications in the background. This limit didn't change for many years, and it is challenging for decentralized design. If the app uses more memory, iOS kills it and the notification is not shown – approximately 10% of notifications can be lost because of that.</li>
+<li>for notifications to work, the app communicates with the notification server. If the user puts the app in background too quickly, the app may fail to enable notification for the new contacts. We plan to change clients and servers to delegate this task to messaging servers, to remove the need for this additional communication entirely, without any impact on privacy and security. This will happen early next year.</li>
+</ul>
+<h2 id="simplex-network" tabindex="-1">SimpleX network</h2>
+<p>Some links to answer the most common questions:</p>
+<p><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20220511-simplex-chat-v2-images-files.html#the-first-messaging-platform-without-user-identifiers">How can SimpleX deliver messages without user identifiers</a>.</p>
+<p><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20220711-simplex-chat-v3-released-ios-notifications-audio-video-calls-database-export-import-protocol-improvements.html#why-having-users-identifiers-is-bad-for-the-users">What are the risks to have identifiers assigned to the users</a>.</p>
+<p><a href="https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat#privacy-and-security-technical-details-and-limitations">Technical details and limitations</a>.</p>
+<p><a href="https://simplex.chat/faq/index.html">Frequently asked questions</a>.</p>
+<p>Please also see our <a href="https://simplex.chat/">website</a>.</p>
+<h2 id="please-support-us-with-your-donations" tabindex="-1">Please support us with your donations</h2>
+<p>Huge <em>thank you</em> to everybody who donated to SimpleX Chat!</p>
+<p>Prioritizing users privacy and security, and also raising the investment, would have been impossible without your support and donations.</p>
+<p>Also, funding the work to transition the protocols to non-profit governance model would not have been possible without the donations we received from the users.</p>
+<p>Our pledge to our users is that SimpleX protocols are and will remain open, and in public domain, so anybody can build the future implementations of the clients and the servers. We are building SimpleX platform based on the same principles as email and web, but much more private and secure.</p>
+<p>Your donations help us raise more funds — any amount, even the price of the cup of coffee, makes a big difference for us.</p>
+<p>See <a href="https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/#please-support-us-with-your-donations">this section</a> for the ways to donate.</p>
+<p>Thank you,</p>
+<p>Evgeny</p>
+<p>SimpleX Chat founder</p>
SimpleX Chat
diff --git a/feed.rss b/feed.rss
index 6d71c84b08..a9fb044844 100644
--- a/feed.rss
+++ b/feed.rss
@@ -6,6 +6,81 @@
It allows you to stay up to date with the latest Blogs from SimpleX Chat.en
+
+ SimpleX network: preset servers operated by Flux, business chats and more with v6.2 of the apps
+ https://simplex.chat/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html
+ <h1 id="simplex-network-preset-servers-operated-by-flux-business-chats-and-more-with-v62-of-the-apps" tabindex="-1">SimpleX network: preset servers operated by Flux, business chats and more with v6.2 of the apps</h1>
+<p><strong>Published:</strong> Dec 10, 2024</p>
+<p>What's new in v6.2:</p>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html#simplex-chat-and-flux-improve-metadata-privacy-in-simplex-network">SimpleX Chat and Flux</a> improve metadata privacy in SimpleX network.</li>
+<li><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html#business-chats">Business chats</a> to provide support from your business to users of SimpleX network.</li>
+<li><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html#better-user-experience">Better user experience</a>: open on the first unread, jump to quoted messages, see who reacted.</li>
+<li><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html#improving-notifications-in-ios-app">Improving notifications in iOS app</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+<h2 id="whats-new-in-v62" tabindex="-1">What's new in v6.2</h2>
+<h3 id="simplex-chat-and-flux-improve-metadata-privacy-in-simplex-network" tabindex="-1">SimpleX Chat and Flux improve metadata privacy in SimpleX network</h3>
+<p><img src="https://simplex.chat/blog/images/20241210-operators-2.png" width="288" class="float-to-right" /> <img src="https://simplex.chat/blog/images/20241210-operators-1.png" width="288" class="float-to-right" /></p>
+<p>SimpleX Chat and <a href="https://runonflux.com/">Flux</a> (Influx Technology Limited) made an agreement to include messaging and file servers operated by Flux into the app.</p>
+<p>SimpleX network is decentralized by design, but in the users of the previous app versions had to find other servers online or host servers themselves to use any other servers than operated by us.</p>
+<p>Now all users can choose between servers of two companies, use both of them, and continue using any other servers they host or available online.</p>
+<p>To use Flux servers enable them when the app offers it, or at any point later via Network & servers settings in the app.</p>
+<p>When both SimpleX Chat and Flux servers are enabled, the app will use servers of both operators in each connection to receive messages and for <a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20240604-simplex-chat-v5.8-private-message-routing-chat-themes.html">private message routing</a>, increasing metadata privacy for all users.</p>
+<p>Read more about why SimpleX network benefits from multiple operators in <a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20241125-servers-operated-by-flux-true-privacy-and-decentralization-for-all-users.html">our previous post</a>.</p>
+<p>You can also read about our plan <a href="https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/blob/stable/docs/rfcs/2024-04-26-commercial-model.md">how network operators will make money</a>, while continuing to protect users privacy, based on network design rather than on trust to operators, and without any cryptocurrency emission.</p>
+<h3 id="business-chats" tabindex="-1">Business chats</h3>
+<img src="https://simplex.chat/blog/images/20241210-business.png" width="288" class="float-to-right" />
+<p>We use SimpleX Chat to provide support to SimpleX Chat users, and we also see some other companies offering SimpleX Chat as a support channel.</p>
+<p>One of the problem of providing support via general purpose messengers is that the customers don't see who they talk to, as they can in all dedicated support systems.</p>
+<p>It is not possible in most messengers, including SimpleX Chat prior to v6.2 - every new customer joins a one-to-one conversation, where the customers see that they talk to a company, not knowing who they talk to, and if it's a bot or a human.</p>
+<p>The new business chats in SimpleX Chat solve this problem: to use them enable the toggle under the contact address in your chat profile. It is safe to do, and you can always toggle it off, if needed - the address itself does not change.</p>
+<p>Once you do it, the app will be creating a new business chat with each connecting customer where multiple people can participate. Business chat is a hybrid of one-to-one and group conversation. In the list of chats you will see customer names and avatars, and the customer will see your business name and avatar, like with one-to-one conversations. But inside it works as a group, allowing customer to see who sent the message, and allowing you to add other participants from the business side, for delegation and escalation of customer questions.</p>
+<p>This can be done manually, or you can automate these conversations using bots that can answer some customer questions and then add a human to the conversation when appropriate or requested by the customer. We will be offering more bot-related features to the app and a simpler way to program bots very soon - watch our announcements.</p>
+<h3 id="better-user-experience" tabindex="-1">Better user experience</h3>
+<img src="https://simplex.chat/blog/images/20241210-reactions.png" width="288" class="float-to-right" />
+<p><strong>Chat navigation</strong></p>
+<p>This has been a long-standing complaint from the users: <em>why does the app opens conversations on the last message, and not on the first unread message</em>?</p>
+<p>Android and desktop apps now open the chat on the first unread message. It will soon be done in the iOS app too.</p>
+<p>Also, the app can scroll to the replied message anywhere in the conversation (when you tap it), even if it was sent a very long time ago.</p>
+<p><strong>See who reacted!</strong></p>
+<p>This is a small but important change - you can now see who reacted to your messages!</p>
+<h3 id="improving-notifications-in-ios-app" tabindex="-1">Improving notifications in iOS app</h3>
+<p>iOS notifications in a decentralized network is a complex problems. We <a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20220404-simplex-chat-instant-notifications.html#ios-notifications-require-a-server">support iOS notifications</a> from early versions of the app, focussing on preserving privacy as much as possible. But the reliability of notifications was not good enough.</p>
+<p>We solved several problems of notification delivery in this release:</p>
+<ul>
+<li>messaging servers no longer lose notifications while notification servers are restarted.</li>
+<li>Apple can drop notifications while your device is offline - about 15-20% of notifications are dropped because of it. The servers and the new version of the app work around this problem by delivering several last notifications, to show notifications correctly even when Apple drops them.</li>
+</ul>
+<p>With these changes the iOS notifications remained as private and secure as before. The notifications only contain metadata, without the actual messages, and even the metadata is end-to-end encrypted between SimpleX notification servers and the client device, inaccessible to Apple push notification servers.</p>
+<p>There are two remaining problems we will solve soon:</p>
+<ul>
+<li>iOS only allows to use 25mb of device memory when processing notifications in the background. This limit didn't change for many years, and it is challenging for decentralized design. If the app uses more memory, iOS kills it and the notification is not shown – approximately 10% of notifications can be lost because of that.</li>
+<li>for notifications to work, the app communicates with the notification server. If the user puts the app in background too quickly, the app may fail to enable notification for the new contacts. We plan to change clients and servers to delegate this task to messaging servers, to remove the need for this additional communication entirely, without any impact on privacy and security. This will happen early next year.</li>
+</ul>
+<h2 id="simplex-network" tabindex="-1">SimpleX network</h2>
+<p>Some links to answer the most common questions:</p>
+<p><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20220511-simplex-chat-v2-images-files.html#the-first-messaging-platform-without-user-identifiers">How can SimpleX deliver messages without user identifiers</a>.</p>
+<p><a href="https://simplex.chat/blog/20220711-simplex-chat-v3-released-ios-notifications-audio-video-calls-database-export-import-protocol-improvements.html#why-having-users-identifiers-is-bad-for-the-users">What are the risks to have identifiers assigned to the users</a>.</p>
+<p><a href="https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat#privacy-and-security-technical-details-and-limitations">Technical details and limitations</a>.</p>
+<p><a href="https://simplex.chat/faq/index.html">Frequently asked questions</a>.</p>
+<p>Please also see our <a href="https://simplex.chat/">website</a>.</p>
+<h2 id="please-support-us-with-your-donations" tabindex="-1">Please support us with your donations</h2>
+<p>Huge <em>thank you</em> to everybody who donated to SimpleX Chat!</p>
+<p>Prioritizing users privacy and security, and also raising the investment, would have been impossible without your support and donations.</p>
+<p>Also, funding the work to transition the protocols to non-profit governance model would not have been possible without the donations we received from the users.</p>
+<p>Our pledge to our users is that SimpleX protocols are and will remain open, and in public domain, so anybody can build the future implementations of the clients and the servers. We are building SimpleX platform based on the same principles as email and web, but much more private and secure.</p>
+<p>Your donations help us raise more funds — any amount, even the price of the cup of coffee, makes a big difference for us.</p>
+<p>See <a href="https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/#please-support-us-with-your-donations">this section</a> for the ways to donate.</p>
+<p>Thank you,</p>
+<p>Evgeny</p>
+<p>SimpleX Chat founder</p>
+
+
+ Tue, 10 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000
+
+ SimpleX Chat
+ https://simplex.chat/blog/20241210-simplex-network-v6-2-servers-by-flux-business-chats.html
+ Servers operated by Flux - true privacy and decentralization for all users
https://simplex.chat/blog/20241125-servers-operated-by-flux-true-privacy-and-decentralization-for-all-users.html
@@ -2773,7 +2848,7 @@ file ---> | XFTP | ------> XFTP ----&
<p>This service continues running when the app is switched off, and it is restarted when the device is restarted even if you don't open the app - so the message notifications arrive instantly every time. To maximize battery life, it can be turned off by switching off "Private notifications". You will still receive notifications while the app is running or in the background.</p>
<p>So, for Android we can now deliver instant message notifications without compromising users' privacy in any way. The app version 1.5 that includes private instant notifications is now available on <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=chat.simplex.app">Play Store</a>, in our <a href="https://app.simplex.chat/">F-Droid repo</a> and via direct <a href="https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/releases/latest/download/simplex.apk">APK</a> downloads!</p>
<p>Please let us know what needs to be improved - it's only the first version of instant notifications for Android!</p>
-<h2 id="our-ios-approach-has-one-trade-off" tabindex="-1">Our iOS approach has one trade-off</h2>
+<h2 id="ios-notifications-require-a-server" tabindex="-1">iOS notifications require a server</h2>
<p>iOS is much more protective of what apps are allowed to run on the devices, and the solution that worked on Android is not viable on iOS.</p>
<p>We already have background refresh in the iOS app that periodically checks for new messages, and if you use the app every day it delivers notifications within 10 or 20 minutes. It is not instant, but it may be usable for some. If you use the app infrequently, however, this delay can become several hours, or your phone may stop checking for the new messages completely. This is not ideal!</p>
<p>The only solution known to us is using Apple's push notifications service (APN) to deliver push notifications.</p>